Distance education pioneer earns Rawlings Award

Online and Distance Education has named Terry Wiedmer, associate professor of curriculum at Ball State University, as its winner of the 2008 Rawlings Outstanding Distance Education Teaching Award.

The award, established in 2002, honors a full-time professor who has proven to be the most dedicated to teaching students at off-campus sites.

For more than a decade, Wiedmer has served in a leadership role at Ball State for the expansion of courses taught through Distance Education. As an early adopter of this method of teaching, she co-taught the first Teachers College distance-education course in 1993 and was also the first instructor in the Department of Educational Leadership to use a television delivery method of her classes.

"Terry has always had a tremendous vision for advancing the utilization of distance education in higher education," said Frank Sabatine, dean of the School of Extended Education. "The contributions she has made to this field are outstanding, and the number of students who have been impacted by her efforts are countless."

The award was named after Joseph S. Rawlings, dean emeritus of the School of Extended Education. Rawlings worked nearly 20 years to create and develop the university's distance learning program.